


Comfortable Lodging

by Kiraly



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-30
Updated: 2016-10-30
Packaged: 2018-08-24 02:46:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8353891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiraly/pseuds/Kiraly
Summary: The expedition hasn't been easy on Lalli, and he's looking forward to getting some rest at the end of it. But sleeping accommodations at the coastal outpost aren't what he was expecting.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [IdleLeaves](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IdleLeaves/gifts).



> Hello Trick-or-Treater! I thought I'd write you an extra little treat, and saw in your letter that you enjoy Emil/Lalli. So...here you go!

“And then we’ll make camp at the coastal outpost until they pick us up. Doesn’t that sound great?”

“Mrr.”

Tuuri frowned. “Come on, Lalli, aren’t you at least a _little_ excited? We’re going home, just like you wanted!”

Lalli glared at her from beneath the heavy fabric of Emil’s coat. He _should_ have been asleep; was trying to sleep, in fact, but Tuuri kept talking. Even though he’d done his job, they wanted more from him. Scout all night. Watch for ghosts. Sit beside Tuuri while she drove, in case the map steered her wrong. He had to be at his best—had to be _the_ best, because they didn’t have anyone else to do his job—and not make any mistakes. But for that, he needed sleep, and he couldn’t do that with Tuuri talking in his ear.

“I don’t understand,” he grumbled, when it became clear that Tuuri wouldn’t let him get away with silence, “why we can’t just drive. We didn’t need a boat to get here.”

“Yes, but there was a bridge, remember? And we broke it—I mean, it broke by itself, it was already broken, haha…” Tuuri rambled on about other things that didn’t matter, but she seemed content to talk to herself, so Lalli curled up on the seat and pulled the jacket over his head.

Even as exhausted as he was, Lalli had to admit there were a few advantages to not going home just yet. Like this jacket, for one thing. He was going to miss it when he went back to Keuruu. It smelled like smoke and sweat and a little like cookies—so in other words, like Emil. The Swede was in the habit of draping it over Lalli whenever he wasn’t allowed to be in his safe space beneath the bunk during the day. It made a pretty good substitute. Almost as nice as when Emil bumped shoulders with him, or smoothed his hair...but those were more things he wasn’t prepared to give up just yet, and he didn’t want to think about it.

Tuuri had come back around to the subject of this outpost they were supposed to find. “And there will be living quarters, Lalli! Imagine actually having some space for a change, won’t that be nice? And enough beds for all of us.”

Lalli rolled his eyes. He didn’t care about beds. As long as there was enough room for him to crawl under one and sleep, he’d be fine.

* * *

 

There was no space beneath the beds.

“Ooh, look, they have these neat storage cupboards! What an efficient use of space!” Tuuri was still gushing about the outpost, even though they’d been there for hours. Every time she noticed a new detail, she had to find Lalli and tell him about it. It was driving him insane.

And now that the sun was sinking below the horizon, she’d dragged him into the sleeping room to claim their beds. But they weren’t proper beds at all, more like boxes with a mattress inside set on top of more boxes for storage. No place for him to sleep.

As the rest of the crew came in from dinner cleanup and setting the perimeter alarms, Lalli sidled to the door. He couldn’t sleep here. He’d find a better place. He would have made it out, too, if Reynir hadn’t blundered into him.

_“Sorry! I didn’t mean to run into you, I was just trying to stop Kitty from going out. She’s such a good guard cat, she wants to make sure we’re safe! And hey, wait, why are you going out? I thought Tuuri said you were done scouting—”_

Lalli had no idea what the Icelander was saying—something about the cat, from the way he kept waving her in Lalli’s face—but his noise attracted the rest of the team’s attention.

Sigrun and Tuuri stopped what they were doing and came over. The captain said something in Norwegian—Lalli caught the words for “what” and “scout”, but the rest was too fast for him to follow. Tuuri broke in with a translation, or maybe her own words.

“Lalli, what are you doing? You know you don’t have to scout anymore, right? This place is fortified, and we have the perimeter alarms if something gets through. And you’ve been up all day _and_ half the night! Come get some sleep.”

All the pent-up frustration from the last few days boiled out. “I’m _trying_ to get some sleep! In the tank, where it’s _quiet_ and the beds aren’t weird!”

Tuuri blinked. “But you can’t...it’s not safe to split up, even here! The beds aren’t that bad, I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

Lalli shook his head and folded his arms. Sigrun pulled Tuuri aside and asked her a question in Norwegian. The rest of the crew had drifted over, and Emil came to stand beside him.

“Are you...okay?”

Lalli let out a huff of breath. “No.” And then, because it was Emil, he added in careful Swedish, “The beds. Not good.”

Emil’s brow wrinkled, then he looked from Lalli to the beds and his face cleared. “Oh. You like to sleep under them.”

Lalli nodded. At least _someone_ understood.

Emil shrugged his coat off. “Will this help?” He held it out and mimed placing it over Lalli’s head.

It wasn’t as good as a really safe place to sleep—but from the way Sigrun and Tuuri were looking at him, it might be the best chance he’d get.

“Okay.” He accepted the jacket and turned to Tuuri just as she finished her conversation with Sigrun.

“Lalli, the captain says you can’t—”

“It’s fine.” He pulled the coat around his shoulders and stalked back toward the weird beds. “Which one am I supposed to use?”

* * *

 

He fell asleep right away, weird bed or no. But falling asleep was never the trouble. _Staying_ asleep was. And sure enough, the nightmares rolled through, all the more terrifying because he could never remember them upon waking. He was a mage. Dreams should answer to him, not the other way around. He woke in the dark, thrashing and panting for breath. Somewhere in the black expanse of the unfamiliar room, someone whispered his name.

“Lalli?”

Not Tuuri. She slept through everything, always had. And the voice came from the wrong direction.

“Emil?”

Light flickered; the cleanser had produced a tiny flame somehow. The warm glow softened his sleep-heavy eyes and set sparks dancing in his tousled hair. “Are you all right?”

Emil’s voice did more to warm him than ten jackets combined. Lalli let out a sigh that was almost a sob and shook his head. Of course he wasn’t all right. He’d fallen asleep where the nightmares could get to him, and even Emil’s jacket couldn’t help. This place was a mistake, and he couldn’t fix it.

Except Emil didn’t seem to care that Lalli wasn’t at his best. “Then do you want to—” the rest of his words came too fast for Lalli to catch. When Lalli didn’t respond, Emil shifted on his mattress and patted the space next to him.

 _Oh._ That was a step beyond the loan of a jacket. It went further than all their other interactions—hair touching, sharing food, leaning on one another when their own strength ran out. And yet...it felt like all those other things had been leading to this. Lalli needed a safe place to sleep, and Emil was offering one. If the roles were reversed, Lalli would do the same.

He crossed the gap between the beds, cat-quiet on his feet. He hesitated at the last second—he’d forgotten to bring Emil’s jacket, should he go back and get it?—but then Emil offered his hand and Lalli allowed himself to be pulled in. Emil’s lighter winked out, leaving them to arrange themselves in darkness. Emil pulled the blanket over them and left his arm where it was, wrapped gently around Lalli’s waist. Lalli snuggled into him just a little, savoring the solid warmth at his back. Breath stirred the ends of his hair.

“Better?” Emil whispered.

Lalli could feel his muscles relaxing, soothed by soft touch and softer words. This was better than sleeping under the coat. It might even be better than sleeping under the bed.

“Better,” he agreed. He felt Emil’s sigh on the back of his neck, and his own body echoed the gesture. Sleep crept over him. This time, he didn’t wake until morning.


End file.
